Zane Maloney of Rodin Motorsport claimed his first-ever pole position in Formula 2 during a dramatic and interrupted qualifying session at Monza. The Barbadian driver set a blistering time of 1:32.160, narrowly beating championship leader Isack Hadjar and Paul Aron to secure the top spot for the Feature Race.
The weekend at Monza started with significant changes across the grid. Most notably, Franco Colapinto was called up to Formula 1 to replace Logan Sargeant at Williams Racing, leaving a vacant seat at MP Motorsport. This vacancy was filled by Oliver Goethe, who made a surprise jump from Formula 3 to make his F2 debut this weekend.
In another notable move, Mercedes AMG F1 junior Kimi Antonelli got his first taste of Formula 1 action during Free Practice, before heading straight into F2 qualifying. Additionally, AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard announced his move to McLaren’s Formula E team, leading to Niels Koolen making his own debut in Formula 2 as Barnard’s replacement.
The qualifying session began with 30 minutes on the clock, and Trident’s Roman Stanek was the first to hit the track. However, the rest of the field was slow to follow, with most drivers hesitating to set any fast laps early on.
It wasn’t until ten minutes into the session that the action really started. Kimi Antonelli quickly set the pace with a provisional pole time of 1:32.941. Just as Zane Maloney, who had been the fastest in practice earlier in the day, was about to complete his first flying lap, a sudden red flag brought the session to a halt due to debris on the track following Victor Martins’ off into the gravel.
When the session resumed with 16 minutes left, only six drivers had recorded a lap time. Isack Hadjar, the championship leader, managed to jump to fourth place before being displaced by Dennis Hauger. But before the rest of the grid could respond, a second red flag was thrown when Gabriel Bortoleto found himself stranded in the gravel, halting proceedings once more.
As the clock continued to tick down during the red flag, only eight drivers had a time on the board, including Antonelli, Enzo Fittipaldi, Hauger, Hadjar, Aron, Stanek, Richard Verschoor, and Koolen. With time running out, the session was quickly restarted with just seven minutes left, and the remaining drivers rushed back out onto the track.
A flurry of fast laps followed, with Joshua Durksen initially snatching the top spot from Antonelli. Hadjar then took provisional pole, with Aron close behind. But it was Zane Maloney who ultimately prevailed, setting a time of 1:32.160 to secure his first-ever Formula 2 pole position, just 0.089 seconds faster than Hadjar.
Hadjar and Aron will start second and third, respectively, with Dennis Hauger and Victor Martins rounding out the top five. Kimi Antonelli, despite his early pace, ended up sixth, followed by Juan Manuel Correa, Oliver Bearman, and Amaury Cordeel. Enzo Fittipaldi, who finished tenth, secured reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race on Saturday.
